Update on Shopping on Thanksgiving Day, This Week

Lovely plants, Bougainvillea, grace the landscapes in Florida.
The blossoms are abundant on these graceful beauties this year.

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Did you venture out shopping during the Black Friday (early Turkey Day) shopping craziness? We enjoyed a lovely turkey dinner, all the goodies, and a delightful time with friends on Thanksgiving Day.  After stuffing ourselves, we decided to "get some exercise" by shopping for the 32" TV at the big box store. Oh yeah. 

Let me just say we expected a crowd, but the turn-out exceeded our expectations. After so many negative comments about stores being open on Thanksgiving, I was under the impression not many folks would get out for the bargains. Boy, was I wrong!  Finding a parking spot was cra-a-a-zy! Our friends dumped us out of the car so we could get a place in line while they searched the parking lot for a bit of space to park the car.

Talk about a line! The TV was only on sale from 6 -7 pm. But this year if the store ran out of the TV's, and you know that's going to happen, the clerks would hand out a voucher for you to get it delivered to the store before Christmas. At least we knew the effort to get to the store and stand in line would guarantee we would get the product eventually. Fingers crossed. 

Let me note that I am a Pollyanna and always trust and believe what someone tells me. 

ALL of the lines for the products available from 6-7 pm were located, not in the electronics area of the store, but in the aisles of the grocery department. So glad I hadn't planned on picking up any groceries! High flying balloons identified the items' locations. Lines of shoppers snaked throughout the grocery aisles and across from the grocery section into other sections.  It was a bit odd to see the huge pallets of sweet potatoes and potatoes shoved into the cards and wrapping paper aisle.

Talk about congestion. I must congratulate the clerks in charge of crowd control on keeping their cool and not whacking those folks who tried (and some succeeded) in cutting in line. Everyone, folks in line and workers, were courteous and unbelievably patient. We saw reports on the news about angry crowds and misbehaving shoppers, but we did not experience that in our corner of the world. 

Now to answer your question, were we successful in our attempt to get the television? The store ran out of televisions as we suspected they would. In fact, the rumor in the line was they began giving out the TV's before 6 pm in order to help control the crowd. So we did get the One Hour Guarantee Voucher, stood in line to pay for the product at the cash register, then spent an hour on the Internet on their site to register our purchase and order the television. 

So I know you're scratching your head and wondering why we put in all that time? Because, wait for it, it's fun! And we saved a bundle on a 32" television. We paid $98. plus tax which totaled up to  $104.37. Now we just have to wait and see if and when the store will text us to let us know the TV is in their store so we can pick it up before Christmas. See? I am a Pollyanna because I know they will keep their promise.

Did you hit the stores over the USA holiday weekend? How about you folks in other countries? Do you experience the madness of Black Friday sales?

This Week:

Friday, December 6--Penny Estelle's new Christmas story releases this Friday. Come on over to the J Q Rose blog and celebrate with us!!